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Dick blissfully sipped the oolong tea that Alfred had prepared for him. It paired up perfectly with the chocolate swiss roll which the thoughtful old man had specially baked for him upon learning his intention to visit the manor from the night before. It had been over a month since he last came back to visit everyone; he’d been knee-deep in trying to make his Blüdhaven a better place. Things were starting to look better now so he rewarded himself with another serving of Alfred’s amazing swiss roll.He heard voices coming from the entrance hall; Jason must be home from school.He smiled to himself as he got up and walked towards the entrance hall to greet his successor; he had missed Jason and hoped to catch up with the boy over tea.“Hey Little Wing!” Dick called out when he saw Jason talking to Alfred. “How have you been?”“Dick!” Jason exclaimed as he peeked over Alfred’s shoulder. “Come! I’d like to introduce you to Rachel!”Alfred stood aside to let Jason through. The girl, Rachel, trailed behind the boy. She was around Jason’s height and had her hair tied in a ponytail. She was wearing Gotham Academy’s uniform so she must be a friend from school. “Hi Rachel, nice to meet you,” Dick held out his hand and smiled at the sweet-looking brunette. “I’m Dick.”“Hello,” Rachel said politely as she shook Dick’s hand. “I’ve heard so much about you from Jason. It’s really nice to finally meet you!”“You guys wanna join me for tea in the dining room?” Dick invited the pair. “Would love to hear what you kids at the Academy are up to these days.”There was a pause for a while as Jason and Rachel looked at each other hesitantly.“Would love to, Dick, but we gotta work on our homework. We’ll be in the library. Next time perhaps?” replied Jason apologetically.“Oh well, run along now,” Dick sighed as he waved his hand exaggeratedly to dismiss them. “I’m glad you guys are responsible students, unlike me.”Jason shoved him playfully before leading Rachel towards the library.“I will bring the tea and cakes shortly,” Alfred called after them before he turned around to retreat to the kitchen.~*~*~*~*~*~*~Upon Alfred’s insistence, Dick decided to stay for dinner. He stuck around the kitchen; helping Alfred wherever he can – which is not much considering his very limited skill in the kitchen – and also to keep the old man company.Alfred was prodding the roast chicken in the oven to see if it was cooked. Satisfied, he took out the tray and set it on the kitchen counter to let the chicken and the assortment of roasted vegetables to cool for a bit. He looked up at Dick, “Dinner should be ready soon. Would you be so kind to help me inform Master Jason and his lady friend? Master Bruce had informed me not to wait for him tonight.”“Sure, Alf!” Dick agreed as he slipped off the counter stool and made a beeline for the library.He heard giggling when he was right outside the library’s door. Not thinking too much about it, he opened the door without knocking. His eyes automatically landed on the big writing table to his left where he thought Jason and Rachel would be. There were books and papers scattered everywhere on the table but they were nowhere to be found.“Jay?” Dick called out.There was a loud thud coming from the fireplace area on his right and he heard Jason muttered fuck. There was some rustling and then both Jason and Rachel stood up hastily from the plush loveseats overlooking the fireplace. Their eyes wild and they looked a little disheveled with their hair sticking out in all directions.
Oh.
Jason’s shirt was untucked and his tie was missing.“Shit, sorry Jay, I-” Dick stumbled, trying not to meet Jason’s eyes, “Just to let you guys know dinner’s ready.”“Uh, yea, okay,” Jason stumbled just as bad as he was trying to fix his shirt. “We’ll be there shortly.”Dick didn’t say anything and ran back to the kitchen as fast as his legs could carry him.~*~*~*~*~*~*~It went without saying that dinner was awkward. At the beginning, at least. Jason and Rachel looked apologetic enough as they joined Dick at the long dining table.“Guess I should have told you earlier, huh?” Jason had mused as they passed the salad around.“I should have figured. I mean, I’ve been 16 too, you know?” Dick had assured the boy in return and smiled sheepishly at the couple. Now that his skeleton was out of the closet, Jason seemed to be more at ease in displaying his affection for Rachel. Although they were not blatantly flirting, Dick could see the way the young couple sitting right in front of him exchanged shy gazes and how they nudged each other playfully every now and then. Jason would ask Rachel if she’d like an extra serving of whatever dish that was on the table. Sometimes, he didn’t even bother asking and proceeded to refill his girlfriend’s plate.Ah, to be sixteen and in love again. Cute, Dick thought.~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Got a pair of tix for the Knights’ game this weekend. Wanna come?
Cant do. Lunch date w R. Unless you have an extra tix? :p
Dick ended up giving both tickets to Jason. No worries, he could catch the game on TV anyway.~*~*~*~*~*~*~The next time Dick was in town, he managed to catch Jason in the Batcave and they were in the midst of a sparring session when the cave was suddenly filled with an obnoxious polyphonic sound. It was coming from Jason’s cellphone which was lying on top of the Batcomputer’s control panel.Jason, who was being pinned to the ground, tapped out and Dick immediately let go of him. Dick sat down and crossed his legs as he watched Jason scrambled for the phone. He took a swig from his water bottle and observed the way Jason swayed his body slightly and ran his finger playfully on the control panel while he was talking on the phone. He couldn’t hear him but he was willing to bet all of his money that it was Rachel on the other line.After a couple of minutes, Jason shoved his cellphone into the pocket of his sweatpants and jogged back to the sparring mat.“Sorry, Dick. Can we continue this some other day?”“Girl problem?”“Not really a problem but definitely girl related,” Jason corrected with a dopey grin on his face. Dick would find it endearing on most days but right now he was feeling a little sad for being ditched by the boy.“Sure.”~*~*~*~*~*~*~Bruce had an important gala to attend that evening. Socialising, he had said but the boys knew that he was actually there for intel gathering; tipsy socialites tend to willingly blabber about their nasties to the charming and equally tipsy (or so they thought) Bruce Wayne. Things were rather slow in Blüdhaven these days anyway so Dick had offered himself to stand in for Bruce that evening.He was out patrolling together with Jason, of course, because Bruce still insisted that Jason needed to be chaperoned. They had intercepted a robbery attempt at a convenient store earlier and was now beating the crap out of a bunch of thugs who tried to mug an unsuspecting elderly couple in one of the quieter alleyways.Easy-peasy; they were immobilised within 5 minutes. They never stood a chance against Nightwing and Robin to begin with."What are you doing?" Dick asked gruffly as he saw Jason fished out his cellphone from one of the compartments on his utility belt.“Replying Rachel,” Jason answered as he typed away with one hand and expertly zip tied the thugs they had taken down with the other. “She texted me right before we took these bozos down. It’s rude to keep a girl waiting.”“You’re a keeper, Boy Wonder!” one of the thugs, the one with the bald patch, remarked. Jason gave him a sly wink and laughed as he continued typing.Dick punched the guy right in the face – a little harder than necessary – and rendered him unconscious. “That’s rich, coming from someone who tried to rob a couple of octogenarians.”He didn’t miss the way Jason’s eyes widened behind the domino and the smirk that followed suit. Damn the kid, he’s really good at ruffling his feathers.~*~*~*~*~*~*~Dick was lying down in his bed after a particularly taxing mission. He was dead tired but out of habit, he couldn’t help doing a mini post-mortem of his earlier drug smuggling bust at the Blüdhaven dock. Trying to take out some 15-20 heavily armed men alone proved rather tricky and he was very thankful that he managed to hold on until the end without a bullet or two in his body. He made a mental note to ask Bruce to loan Jason to him the next time he intended to stop some big scale bust such as this.Jason.His mind reeled.It’s not like he was jealous. He’s totally not.This was getting ridiculous; Dick knew he was being ridiculous.What’s the big deal anyway? He started dating when he was 13 so it’s only natural that Jason would do the same thing too. He was 16 and a healthy, growing boy after all.Okay, fine. Maybe he was jealous. He was too used to having Jason’s full attention on him and now that he was sharing it with someone else, he couldn’t help but feel a little upset about it. What bugged him the most, though, was the main reason behind this jealousy. Was he jealous that Jason wasn’t spending as much time with him? Or was he jealous that Jason was actually seeing someone?He stared at the ceiling as he thought long and hard about it. He thought about Jason’s attentive eyes which were always, always on him and how those eyes were trained on Rachel’s delicate face now. He thought about the way Jason tilted his head and gave him that half smirk, half (fond) smile whenever he was being stupid and how he was doing the same thing whenever he read texts from Rachel now.Dick felt his throat constricted. He groaned as he rolled over and buried his face in his pillow.~*~*~*~*~*~*~It was May 6th.It was an important day because everyone had reminded him on the importance of May 6th.Jason had called him two weeks earlier; to ask him whether he could make himself free on May 6th. Gotham Academy was having their prom night and Jason had never attended a prom before so he was pretty ecstatic about it. Dick could never say no to the boy and thus, he agreed to be his relief for the night. It’s not like Batman couldn’t function alone but oh well, he wanted Jason to enjoy his time at the prom and not having to worry whether Bruce was crying or not for having to patrol alone. Something like that.A week after that, he had called Alfred for their weekly catch up session. Alfred was telling him about Jason’s suit-fitting misadventure. Apparently the boy was growing up so fast that he couldn’t wear any of his old suits. Such a shame because knowing Bruce, he must have gotten those Really Good Ones for him. With the prom so close, Jason was panicking over his wardrobe issue that according to Alfred, the boy had ended up catching a fever. Bruce had banned him from patrolling so that he could rest properly and recover in time for the prom.“You remember what day is tomorrow right?” Bruce had asked him over the phone last night.“Yes,” Dick replied nonchalantly and he hoped Bruce could tell that he’s rolling his eyes from the other end of the line.“Good. I suggest you suit up here. I think he’ll be more at ease if he sees you beforehand,” Bruce strategized over the phone. It was rather cute how he wanted the prom to go well for Jason too. Despite everything, Bruce was a thoughtful person and Dick knew that. The man just didn’t know how to show it openly.“Mkay,” Dick agreed and put down the phone.So here he was, stalking around the rooftop of one of the taller buildings in Miagani Island, acting as Robin’s substitute for the night. Things were rather slow and Dick tried to stifle a yawn as he wondered if Bruce would allow him to retire early.Suddenly, Dick heard the sound of capes flapping in the wind and followed by a dull thud next to him. He turned to look and surprised to see Robin crouching next to him.“Hey!” Jason said as he stood up. He lifted a gloved hand to wave at him and a shark-like grin was plastered on his face.Dick’s mouth fell open and he asked in disbelief, “What are you doing here?”“Patrolling?” Jason replied with one eyebrow raised. He sounded amused - as if Dick had just asked him a dumb question.“Aren’t you supposed to be enjoying GA’s prom night?”“Supposed to,” Jason drawled, “but decided against it. I broke up with Rachel, by the way.”That caught Dick by surprise. In fact, he totally did not see that one coming considering how lovey-dovey the two were. “What happened?”“I got a bruise on my arm from being tossed around by Bane earlier this week. She saw it and I-” Jason explained; he was shifting on his feet. “I didn’t know how to answer her. I lied and that made me feel really awful, y’know? So yeah, I decided it’s best to end it.” “Geez, that sucks,” Dick said sympathetically as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. “I’m really sorry to hear that, Jay.”“It happens; I guess?” Jason shrugged and then he was looking at Dick. “You should know.”Dick smiled ruefully and offered the boy a comforting pat on the shoulder before pulling him into a one-armed hug.“Dude, I came all the way from Blüdhaven to cover for you so you could pop your prom cherry. You owe me a coffee.”“Fine,” Jason grumbled as he broke himself free from Dick and dived off into the night; presumably to get the coffee.Jason returned 15 minutes later with two cups of coffee neatly slotted in a carrier and he joined Dick to sit on the ledge of the rooftop. It was starting to get cold and Dick eyed the hot coffee hungrily.“Here,” Jason said as he held out a cup to Dick. As soon as Dick took the cup from him, Jason gently grabbed Dick’s wrist and hold it in place; preventing Dick from retracting his hand. He was busy rummaging through the compartments on his belt with his other hand. He sounded exasperated until he managed to find what he was looking for. And then Dick saw it.A corsage.It was made up of electric blue roses and was neatly adorned with silver leaves and thin silver ribbons. Jason brought it on top of Dick’s wrist and carefully laced the ribbon’s loose ends together. The corsage complemented the Nightwing suit so well.“I think, at the back of my mind, I knew it was meant for you all along,” Jason said in a low, tentative voice as he stared at the corsage adorning Dick’s right hand. And then Jason was looking at him, with that gaze and that half-smirk, half smile that he had come to love so much.“Little Wing,” Dick managed to croak out. His brain was malfunctioning with how close their faces were. And holy hell, was that a love confession or something from Jason? His heart was beating so hard in his chest that he couldn’t even hear what Jason was saying.And Jason was definitely saying something because when he realized that Dick had been stupefied, he just shook his head and laughed before leaning up to gave him a chaste kiss on the lips.That was when his brain stopped functioning altogether and he reflexively grabbed Jason by the arm and pulled him into a long kiss. That caught Jason by surprise but he warmed up to the kiss fast enough and had started to coax Dick into parting his lips open with his tongue.Damn, this kid is good, Dick thought and he saw his own demise in the horizon. It took him all of his willpower not to pull Jason into his lap. Or climb into Jason’s lap himself. There would be plenty of time for these; he was certain of that. There was certainly no need for them to rush it.“I’m sorry,” Dick said as they finally parted. His eyes were closed and he was still trying to chase after the phantom kisses. “You were saying?”Jason didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he took out his iPod from his utility belt compartment. He fiddled with it for a while and hooked it up to something on his belt. Suddenly, Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight was being played out loud; enough for both of them to hear it clearly but not loud enough to attract attention.“Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?” Jason asked and he was waggling his eyebrows comically at Dick. He held his hand out in an invitation.“You dork,” Dick laughed as he swatted the boy’s shoulder. He then took Jason’s proffered hand. “Lead the way, Robin.”